Blog:

The little guy doesn’t get overlooked

I was really excited to see Matthew Miller’s post on ZDNet about the Evernote Mobile Web client. It always rewarding to see someone use something you’ve built. It’s especially cool when they appreciate some of the subtleties. The Evernote Mobile Web client was one of the first completed parts of the Evernote service. The web viewer, in conjunction with the ability to email notes and photos into your notebook, was designed as a lightweight Evernote client that could run anywhere. When we were deciding on features for the mobile web we focused on fast loading pages that even the simplest mobile web browser could use, yet, at the same time, we wanted to illustrate the power of capturing and recalling your notes from anywhere.

A lot of the original development was done using the iPhone, HTC TyTN, Motorola RAZR, and the Opera Mini Browser. The application tries to figure out how advanced your phone is and enables features accordingly. Better phones gets thumbnails and more notes per page (as Matthew points out), the less-advanced phones get fewer notes per page with number pad shortcuts. If we don’t guess right, you can always re-configure each phone on the settings page. One other nice feature is that if you take a huge picture and access it via the mobile web, we’ll resize the pictures before we send it down to the phone, so it won’t take all day to open up a note. We also incorporated emailing functionality so notes could be emailed with just a few clicks.

For mobile web users who want to access their notes even when they are offline (say, on a plane), the IMAP gateway provides a solution. Phones with an email client that supports offline access, like iPhones and Windows Mobile devices, can connect and sync their notes down to their phone and get to them even when they don’t have network access. You don’t get highlighting, complex search tools or some of the other specialties of Evernote but it’s another great way to get to your information whenever you want.

Next on the list, we’re looking at more iPhone and Android-specific features. The browsers on the high powered devices are great and we want to make the most of them.